peat

[fishkid26]

is peat that you buy at a garden center safe to put into a discus tank?

[MGR]

As long as it's 100% natural it's ok

[fishkid26]

it says it is natural organic is that good enough?

[Smokey]

You did not say where you all is from./ PEAT - aka spagmum moss. Yes , most places carry pure peat moss. You can purchase in bales.

fish - why do you want to use peat?

I am one of the few people who use peat to condition water for my discsus/angels/ S.A. fish.

Not being an athourty, I do know about the use of peat.

Any questions -- please ask. I wiil help as much as I am able too.
Smokey
Canadian rocky mountains and snow

[fishkid26]

It is called spagnum peat moss and i need it because out of the tap my ph is over 8.0 and does not drop much after aging so i need the peat to bring the ph down. Do you think that i can use the spagnum peat moss for discus?

[fishkid26]

I put the peat in one of my tanks with some livebearers, if the livebearers seem fine do you think it will be o.k. for discus? if i can do this how long do you think i should leave the peat in the other tank before i put it in my discus tank?

[lesley]

Hi Smokey,

do you know if using peat to bring the tank to (say about 6.6-6.8) helps to reduce nitrite toxicity?? I think you referred to peat in another post and mentioned a "natural antibiotic"??

Thanks, Lesley

[Rob R.]

Lesley,
Lowering your PH below 7.0 will not reduce nitrite toxicity. It will, however, make ammonia in your water less toxic to fish.
Rob 8)

[lesley]

[Smokey]

spagnum peat is all natural material. It is a result of centurys of decomposed moss. It has been scientifically proven to preserve animals that have fallen into it. Certain Bacteria do not grow or survuve in th peat pits. Water which has been subjected to peat ..the tannins.....have an anti- bacterial properitie. Kills fungus. Proven to work in my tanks, also.. I placed some angels , with fin fungus ... three days later - no fungus. MPE.
Peat moss adsorbs the minerials in water, lowering the KH/GH and resulting the pH. In Nature, Peat bogs have a pH of 4.5.

lesley ; if you have nitrites - you have a un-cycled tank!!! Only w/c and the growth of the proper bacteria will stop this. PS - peat moss does not affect the bio-logical bacterial process.

For fish - Treat the water with peat, till you arrive at the pH you desire. I suggest using a seperate container, Let your tap water trickle through a bucket of peat. I use a 5 gallon bucket filler with 4 gallons of peat. 5 - 10 gallons per hour is the flow rate I use.

Fresh peat has a very strong effect on water; however peat does exhaust quickly. Remove the peat when exhausted.

The tannins - aka - the brown coloring is what kills fungus and bateria.

I have read, where one fellow - then passes the peat conditioned water through carbon filters to remove the colorong, and the pH is still low. I have not tryed this .

Hope I have answered everyones questions/

OH, yea, all my discus swim in peat conditioned water. pH 7.0, right now; and a KH of 35 ppm.
Mixing the peat conditioned water with raw tap water - allows me to adjust the waters numbers to what every i find necessary.

PS - 4 gallons of peat will treat ~ 300 liters, of my 8.5pH / 450 ppm KH / 450 ppm GH water. Final water numbers - 5.5pH / <10ppm KH / 30 ppm GH.

I just add raw water to get the desired numbers. By the way [ peat conditioned water is very stable ] does not bounce around./